i.c.stars Leadership Council (ILC)

Thanks to Accenture’s guidance, i.c.stars formed a committee of CIO’s in our network to makeup i.c.stars Leadership Council (ILC). i.c.stars strives to present innovative technology content at all three of our events: Capitalize on Illinois, iOpener and Tech Bash. This committee meets quarterly to assist i.c.stars’ staff & board in planning relevant content and themes for our events. The ILC brainstorms ideas for continued CIO engagement with the i.c.stars network throughout the year and provides insight on speakers and content for each event.

Meet David

David Baruch is the chief information officer for Spencer Stuart and a member of the management team. He is responsible for developing and leading the firm’s overall technology vision and roadmap, including setting IT strategy as well as the design, development and maintenance of all business technology systems and market-facing tools and services.

David brings to Spencer Stuart global information technology leadership and consulting experience across a range of industry sectors, including IT services, human resources, real estate and business services.

Before joining Spencer Stuart, David served as CIO of Hewitt Associates and then Aon Hewitt. He drove all client-facing and internal technology strategy and led a team of 3,500 technology associates around the world, including the company’s offshore resources in India.

Prior to that, David served as the chief information officer at Equity Office Properties, the largest owner of commercial office real estate in the United States before its acquisition by Blackstone. Under his leadership, Equity Office Properties became a premier service and technology-driven property management company by implementing innovative technology solutions. David began his career with Accenture, where he rose to become a partner.

David earned his B.S. degree in quantitative business analysis from Indiana University.

Meet David

David Bent is Sr. Vice President & Chief Information Officer United Stationers Supply Company, and President United Stationers Technology Services. United Stationers, with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, is North America’s largest wholesale distributor of business products. With sales of $5.0 billion, the company offers some 100,000 brand-name items from more than 1000 manufacturers, as well as its own private-brand merchandise line. He joined United Stationers in May 2003 and leads a team of 220 IT associates.

Before joining United Stationers, he was Corporate Vice President, Chief Information Officer, and General Manager, Software Division, Acterna LLC. Acterna is a $1 Billion telecommunication test equipment and services company with operations in 32 countries. He was responsible for all Information Technology initiatives across Acterna’s global operations. In October 2002, he took on additional responsibility as General Manager of Acterna’s Software Division. In this role, he had profit and loss accountability for Acterna’s software products that are marketed to leading telecommunication and cable television industry service providers.

Prior to joining Acterna in August 2000, he was Chief Information Officer, Visteon Automotive Systems, a position he was appointed to in early 1999. He was responsible for all Information Technology activities across Visteon’s $19 Billion global operations, which employed over 800 IT personnel supporting 80,000 Visteon employees. In this role, he was named “InformationWeek CIO of the Year, 1999”
(See www.informationweek.com/764/chief.htm )

Between 1982 and his role as CIO at Visteon, he spent 17 years with Ford Motor Company. His Ford career began in the UK where he spent four years in various positions in the Product Development Information Technology Group. In 1986, he moved to Ford in Germany where he lived for 11 years prior to moving to Ford’s global headquarters in the USA in 1997. Highlights of his career with Ford include the following:
o Led a global team of Designers and IT associates in the development of an all new automotive styling system in partnership with Japanese and American software firms that reduced new vehicle development time by twelve months.
o In 1994 he was a member of the “Ford 2000” Transition Team (a team of 150 senior leaders from Ford’s worldwide operations), which led the strategy work to define Ford’s transition to a global operation.
o From 1995 to 1997 he was head of Information Technology for Ford’s Product Development Operations in Europe, reporting to the Vice-President, European Vehicle Center.

David Bent was born in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, in 1960 and is a graduate of Bristol University, where he gained a BSc. (Hons.) Degree in Civil Engineering in 1982. Having worked 11 years in Germany, Mr Bent is a fluent German speaker. He is a member of InformationWeek magazine’s Advisory Board.

Meet Juliana

Julianna T. Cole, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, joined the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago in March 2010. Julie is responsible for leading and advancing Information Technology strategies, and practices which support the thousands of members and employees of the organization. She brings more than 19 years of corporate, entrepreneurial, and consulting experience to the Y reflecting her ability to combine broad based technology and business expertise to expand the business impact of IT.

Prior to her role at the Y, Julie worked for Johnson Publishing as the Vice President of Systems and Technology and Chief Technology Officer. In this capacity, she was responsible for the technology strategy and management of all application development, network and telecommunication services, as well as data center operations and security.

Previously, she spent nine years at the Tribune Company, starting as a technology manager with oversight of Metromix.com and then as Chief Technology Officer for Tribune Interactive. In that role, she managed technology strategy, operations, software development, and risk management for over 60 web sites and interactive products related to Tribune’s newspapers, television stations, and niche businesses.
Julie earned her MBA at the University of Illinois- Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She completed an MIT Sloan Executive Education program and was awarded a certificate in Strategy and Innovation.

Julie has been a member of the National Advisory Committee for The HistoryMakers and served as a technical advisor to the MIS Steering Committee for the Ounce of Prevention Fund. She currently serves as a member of the i.c.stars Program Committee and the Knight News Innovation Lab Advisory Board.

Meet Wheeler

Wheeler G. Coleman is the vice president and chief technology officer for HCSC and brings more than 27 years experience and leadership in information technology. As CTO, Coleman works to continue progress in furthering HCSC’s technology strategies, resource management and the future state architecture, as well as providing oversight for the company’s the technology investments.

Coleman started his tenure at HCSC in 1983 writing software code. He was quickly identified as a leader, and has spent the last 23 years in management working with various stakeholders to improve business and technical solutions across the enterprise. Prior to his role as the CTO, Coleman served as Corporate Vice President of the ITG Program Management Office, will full responsibility for the operational and strategic direction of the unit, including managing project and core budgets of more than $150 million and directing efforts to move the organization to the next level of customer service and IT project management.

Coleman has received several awards for his leadership and service at HCSC, including the Presidential and CIO Awards, and other leadership and management awards for outstanding contributions to the organization. Coleman is a graduate of Northern Illinois University in Applied Data Processing and received his MBA from the University of Notre Dame.